Letter: No way to make fracking safe

To the editor

Published 9:32 pm, Wednesday, January 16, 2013

No type or amount of regulation can make hydraulic fracturing for antural gas safe. It is inherently dangerous and inherently unjust, with massive profits flowing out of state and unacceptable risks to our water, air, food and climate that can't be adequately addressed by regulations.

Among other failings, currently proposed regulations allow the use of dangerous toxic chemicals whose identity can be kept secret from the public. They don't protect our drinking water from chemicals moving underground. They leave us open to the hazards of radiation and radon. And they have no plan for the treatment or disposal of toxic wastewater.

The U.S. Geological Survey is looking at the relationship between fracking and a rise in earthquakes. Fracking is also part of the unconscionable effort by multinational corporations to wring the last climate-changing fuels from the ground at unthinkable cost not only to New Yorkers today, but also to future generations everywhere.

The governor and state policymakers should not heed the false promises of jobs and tax revenue. Andrew Cuomo's administration should instead invest aggressively in swift, equitable solutions to our energy and climate problems: improved public transit; community-scale, democratically controlled renewables; energy efficiency retrofits; Sandy relief for the neediest; and planned, equitable climate change adaptation. Furthermore, the state should adopt human rights standards with a binding climate justice framework for all energy projects in the state.